Merrill's Fleming Leaving B of A

Gregory Fleming, the president and chief operating officer of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. until its sale last week to Bank of America Corp., is taking a job at Yale University, according to people familiar with the situation.

Mr. Fleming would be the second senior Merrill executive to leave since the sale closed. Robert McCann, who had been named to head the brokerage force, left abruptly on Monday.

Mr. Fleming, an investment banker who specialized in financial industry transactions and stepped in to briefly lead Merrill after Stan O'Neal was ousted as chief executive in October 2007, will become a senior research scholar at Yale Law School in New Haven, Conn., a person with knowledge of Mr. Fleming's plans said Thursday.

B of A had said Mr. Fleming would have expanded duties overseeing all global industry heads in corporate and investment banking. The move was billed as part of a wider effort to let Merrill put its stamp on B of A.

Under the new structure, Mr. Fleming reported to John Thain, who had been Merrill Lynch's chairman and chief executive and is now running B of A's global banking, securities, and wealth management business.

Mr. Fleming's job will be eliminated, since Mr. Thain has no plans to name a successor, according to a person familiar with the matter.